A variety of types of access networks exist for providing users with high speed data services, television services, telephony services, and the like. Examples of such access networks include, for example, a cable access network that may utilize a hybrid fiber-coax infrastructure that supports both upstream and downstream data transmission between a head-end location where incoming signals are received and customer premises equipment; an optical access network such as a passive optical network (PON), an active optical network (AON), or the like in which optical fiber provides all or part of the local loop used for last mile communications; a wireless-based access network such as a satellite-based access network that relays network data between ground stations and transceivers located at a subscriber's premises via geosynchronous satellites or a wireless cellular network that includes a network of distributed cells, with each cell served by an access point (e.g., a base station) that enables portable transceivers (e.g., mobile devices) to communicate with the base station and with each other via the base station; a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) access network in which network access is provided by transmitting digital data over the wires of a local telephone network (e.g., a public switched telephone network (PSTN); and so forth.
Data transmitted across an access network may be packaged and transmitted in accordance with one or more protocols corresponding to the access network. For example, in cable access networks, a version of the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) may include various protocols at various layers of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model of communication (e.g., Media Access Control (MAC) layer protocols) that specify how network data is to be packaged and transmitted in order to enable high-bandwidth data transfer on an existing cable television architecture.